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American retail corporation Target was slammed online after the claims that it made some charitable donation to an organization calling for the shutting down of Mount Rushmore went viral. In the past two weeks, the company has already lost $12 billion in market value because of its Pride-themed clothes for adults and children.
As per a report published by Fox News, the retail chain supported a program named "Land back," since the national memorial is an “international symbol of white supremacy.” The publication also found 2021 tax papers showing that the company gave money to a nonprofit organization called NDN Collective.
The nonprofit wrote:
"To truly dismantle white supremacy and systems of oppression, we have to go back to the roots. Which, for us, is putting Indigenous Lands back in Indigenous hands."
The NDN Collective has initiated the "Land back" campaign, which urges the United States government to return its public land.
It is unclear how much money Target donated to the organization, which calls itself a group that is "dedicated to building the collective power of Indigenous Peoples while fostering a world built on justice + equity for all people and the planet" on its Twitter handle.
However, according to a statement on the NDN Collective website, the organization received a $50 million grant in 2021 to benefit Indigenous communities. The news of Target funding an organization trying to remove Mount Rushmore did not impress netizens, as one of them commented:
Twitter reactions on Target funding NDN Collective to remove Mount Rushmore
After the news of Target funding an organization trying to remove Mount Rushmore went viral, Twitterati was furious. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem slammed the retail chain for funding the organization that supports "giving away" Mount Rushmore.
Others slammed the retail chain store for the move and called for its boycott, just like Bud Light and several other brands.
As per Fox News' report, NDN Collective said that Mount Rushmore represents a symbol of white supremacy due to its very existence. The national memorial, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, features the faces of four American presidents, namely George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, carved into the mountainside. The group argues that the memorial is situated on "stolen Lakota land."
As per the organization's website, NDN also denounces militarization as a means of "exploitation and destruction of Indigenous communities" in the US.
As of writing, Target has not responded to Fox News' report.
